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The down turn by Aerialis Kites

Complete the basic turns and avoid relying on a single direction of rotation.

From the series Aerialis tutorials. Transcript by QuadKites.org. Original article on Aerialis Kites.

The down turn by Aerialis Kites

Key takeaways from this video

  • Start from about halfway up the wind window and fly across toward an edge; on reaching the right edge, a tap on the right brake line sends the kite back down to the left (and the other way round).
  • Return both handles to neutral as soon as the turn is complete so the kite flies away in its new direction.
  • Fly the crossing slightly upward to leave room for the turn, and remember that a quick, sharp tap turns the kite faster.

Transcript

  1. From the up-turn to the down-turn

    1:38

    Hi! Ready for another tutorial? Today we're going to take our turning a step further. You might remember that in a previous tutorial we took a closer look at turning your kite from left to right, but that was the upward turn. Today we're going to take a closer look at the downwards turn, the down-turn. It's a bit more difficult, but just hang in there and you'll learn everything you need to do great down-turns, and who knows, maybe you'll be able to do the figure of eight as well. Let's go.

  2. Setting up the turn

    2:24

    Launch your kite and fly it up to about 50% of the wind window. Gently turn your kite and fly it towards the edge of the wind window, in this case the right edge. You do a down-turn to the left by tapping the right brake line. When the turn is completed, return your handles to neutral. Now your kite flies to the left. For the right turn, tap your left brake line.

  3. Leave yourself room

    3:08

    When flying across the wind window, fly your kite slightly upwards. This will position your kite higher in the wind window, leaving you with more space, so you won't hit the ground when you do the down-turn.

  4. Watching the taps

    3:32

    Okay, launch, and zooming in on the handles, watch the tapping of the brake lines. Now tap left, tap right, tap left, tap right, tap left, tap right. Starting to get the picture by now? And now with the kite also in view: step right, step left, step right, tap left. At half speed now: tap right, the kite turns, back to neutral; tap left, the kite turns, and back to neutral; and again, tap right, the kite turns and back to neutral. Have in mind that a quick and sharp tap will make your kite turn faster. And when you have all this down, this is what it should look like.

  5. Wrapping up

    5:09

    I hope that you found this tutorial useful. Thanks for watching, and bye bye.

Keep going

In the series Aerialis Kites quad-line tutorials

  1. Grab the handles, move your body
  2. The angle of attack
  3. More on the angle of attack
  4. The down turn — you are here
  5. Improve your hovers
  6. Straight trajectories
  7. Footwork and body position

See the 29 videos of the series

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